Fuzzy sets and their applications to cognitive and decision processes

TLDR: Fuzzy sets are a class in which there may be a continuum of grades of membership as, say, in the class of long objects as mentioned in this paper, which underlie much of our ability to summarize, communicate, and make decisions under uncertainty or partial information.

Abstract: The papers presented in this volume were contributed by participants in the US-Japan Seminar on Fuzzy Sets and Their Applications, held at the University of California, Berkeley, in July 1974 These papers cover a broad spectrum of topics related to the theory of fuzzy sets, ranging from its mathematical aspects to applications in human cognition, communication, decisionmaking, and engineering systems analysis Basically, a fuzzy set is a class in which there may be a continuum of grades of membership as, say, in the class of long objects Such sets underlie much of our ability to summarize, communicate, and make decisions under uncertainty or partial information Indeed, fuzzy sets appear to play an essential role in human cognition, especially in relation to concept formation, pattern classification, and logical reasoning Since its inception about a decade ago, the theory of fuzzy sets has evolved in many directions, and is finding pplications in a wide variety of fields in which the phenomena under study are too complex or too ill defined to be analyzed by conventional techniques Thus, by providing a basis for a systematic approach to approximate reasoning, the theory of fuzzy sets may well have a substantial impact on scientific methodology in the years ahead, particularly in the realms of psychology, economics, law, medicine, decision analysis, information retrieval, and artificial intelligence The US-Japan Seminar on Fuzzy Sets was sponsored by the US-Japan Cooperative Science Program, with the joint support of the National Science Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science In organizing the seminar, the co-chairmen received considerable help from JE O’Connell and L Trent of the National Science Foundation; the staff of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; and D J Angelakos and his staff at the University of California, Berkeley As co-editors of this volume, we wish also to express our heartfelt appreciation to Terry Brown for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of the manuscript, and to Academic Press for undertaking its publication For the convenience of the reader, a brief introduction to the theory of fuzzy sets is provided in the Appendix of the first paper in this volume An up-to-date bibliography on fuzzy sets and their applications is included at the end of the volume